Legal counselling

A national industry

The legal profession is composed primarily of companies with legal counsel and practice as a principal occupation. The industry spans over companies with varying specialities within both private and public law, commercial law and international affairs. Several companies have offices abroad with lawyers practicing under that country's commission. In addition to legal counsel and practice a larger proportion of companies offers strategic and operational management consulting.

Large increase in turnover
Turnover in the Danish legal sector has grown strongly over the period 2000-2007. As such, the industry in 2000 generated DKK 6,529 mio. and DKK 10,507 mio. in 2007 - representing an increase of over 60%. The same trend is observed in the industry's overall performance measured in profits, which in 2000 was DKK 2,051 mio. compared to DKK 3,577 mio. in 2007.¹

Business Consulting dominate the industry
The distribution of the industry's turnover in services has remained unchanged in recent years. Thus, the largest service was business counselling which accounted for 34% of the industry’s turnover and includes counselling in regards to corporate formation, mergers and splits, shareholder relations, and international contracts. On the second and third place is real estate councelling (15%) and civil lawsuits (9%).²

Unchanged number of companies
The number of legal professions is relatively unchanged. The explanation lies in the number of newly established companies in the period 2000-2007, as the number accounts for nearly the same number of mergers in the industry. This is also observed in the number of employees in the industry - both manpower and staff - which has risen by 8% and 12% respectively.³ Thus, the number of employees increased from 9,272 in 2000, of whom 7,690 were staff to 9,999 in 2007 of which 8,606 were staff. In comparison, salary, pension etc. increased from DKK 2,622 mio. in 2000 to DKK 4,114 mio. in 2007. This represents an increase of more than 50%.⁴ Furthermore, salary per employee increased in the same period - from DKK 292,000 to DKK 374,000 per year - an increase equivalent to 28%.⁵

Exports on decline
In 2008, exports of services in the industry accounted for DKK 414 mio. or 4% of the total turnover. In 2006, export comprised of 6%. It is primarily corporate advisory services that are exported accounting for 75%.⁶ Companies are primary customers In 2008, the industry's largest customer group was the Danish companies who accounted for 70% of the total turnover. Various organizations and individuals accounted for approx. 25% while the public sector accounted for 5% of turnover.⁷

¹ Statbank, GF2
² Production Statistics No. 452, Oct. 7th, 2009
³ Statbank, GF2
⁴ Statbank, GF2
⁵ Statbank, GF2
⁶ Production Statistics No. 452, Oct. 7th, 2009
⁷ Production Statistics No. 452, Oct. 7th, 2009

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